On July 13, the California Secretary of State completed the official vote count for the June 5 primary. A press release from the Secretary of State says that 31.1% of the registered voters participated. This is the lowest presidential primary turnout in California history. California has been holding presidential primaries since 1912. One can view the press release at the web page of the Secretary of State.

The Secretary of State’s press release notes that the June 2008 primary had a lower turnout, but that primary was not a presidential primary. No statewide offices were on the ballot in that primary; just primaries for Congress and state office.

Gary Johnson supporters in the Atlanta, Georgia area will hold a demonstration outside the CNN (Cable News Network) Center from Sunday, July 15, at 11 a.m., continuously until July 16 at 11 p.m. The demonstration is to draw public awareness that all the public opinion polls that CNN sponsors or co-sponsors invariably include only President Obama and Mitt Romney. Also, the network has given very little news coverage to the Johnson campaign.

For more information about the demonstration, e-mail Chris Hill at protestCNN@gmail.com.

Judge Joseph Lodge, who is a Superior Court Judge in Coconino County, Arizona, will seek re-election as the Libertarian nominee. First he must win the Libertarian primary, but he only needs 15 write-in votes to achieve that, assuming no one else receives more write-ins. No one’s name will be printed on the ballot for that office in the Libertarian primary.

Lodge is a Democrat, but he was removed from the Democratic primary ballot because his petition didn’t specify which seat he was running for. He did have enough valid signatures. See this story. The person who challenged him, Cathleen Nichols, is a Justice of the Peace and also a candidate for the Democratic nomination for Superior Court Judge.

Large-population counties in Arizona do not have partisan elections for Superior Court Judge, but smaller counties, like Coconino County, do. The primary is August 28. Arizona already has one other Superior Court Judge who is a Libertarian. He is John Buttrick, but he is in Maricopa County, which does not have partisan elections for Superior Court Judge.